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Malta Operatives
Overview Background Malta Group official info ( Copied from the City of Heroes official website http://www.cityofheroes.com/game_info/know_your_adversary/malta.html): Secrets within secrets. Black helicopters and balaclavas. Shadowy agencies with limitless slush funds, and black-hearted agents with licenses to kill. Hushed conversations on internet chat-rooms that mysteriously vanish. Men in black with blank identities, and deadly women with a dozen passports. A high-tech paramilitary force divided into clandestine cells and dispersed around the globe – this is the Malta Group. In a world of super-powered chaos and costume-clad adventurers, there are still mortal forces that try to control the storm. One such group is spoken of in whispers, even at the highest levels of power. Rarely seen, those who know of them detect their fingerprints staining the headlines with frightening regularity. Young heroes may never encounter these forces directly, but paranoid government analysts and conspiracy experts believe the Malta Group’s machinations are ubiquitous. Veteran heroes who have encountered these heavily-equipped and highly-trained special forces warn of their resources and capabilities. These agents often disguise themselves with fake IDs and false names, claiming to be attached to real agencies (like the bogus NSA’s Suppressed Transmissions Office), or part of completely fabricated groups (like the KTU anti-terrorism agency). Yet no matter what their papers say, they have similar features in common. Malta field agents are centered around the Tactical Ops team. These men resemble “future infantry soldiers,” armed with advanced assault rifles, tasers, fragmentation and web grenades. Officers may carry stun grenades as well, to disorient and paralyze targets. They wear cutting edge armor, such as electro-textiles that provide power to a wide array of built-in sensors (capable of detecting both the wearer’s vital signs and monitoring a target’s condition), all reinforced with flexible Kevlar plates. Tactical Ops teams are often supported by an Engineer. In addition to their expert skills, they are able to deploy mini-field artillery with lightning-quick reaction speed. These autogun turrets have a rapid rate of fire and a sophisticated tracking system; once they lock on, they maintain a field of fire until the target is destroyed or out of range. The most feared agents of Malta are their Sapper units. These battle-hardened soldiers are equipped with a Bio-Energy Feedback Inducer: a weapon designed in a top-secret laboratory, built specifically for hunting down and neutralizing super-powered beings. Heroes coined the term “Power Sapper” for these weapons, and use it with fear, anger, and disgust. A hero cornered by a Sapper will find he or she is unable to sustain most powers, and will be easy prey for the Sapper’s back-up. Malta also has a stable of veteran killers in their service. These wetwork agents are recruited early, and put through a rigorous training regime. Despite their lack of powers, they believe they can take on a super-powered hero one-on-one. Due to their extensive close combat and sniper training, they are often right. Technically known as Special Qualification Marksmen, everyone calls them Gunslingers because of their cocky attitude and cowboy mentality. They are armed with high-tech pistols capable of firing a wide-range of specialized ammunition – all designed plainly to take down super-powered beings. Those who have battled them have reported explosive rounds, liquid nitrogen rounds (that freeze a target solid), incendiary rounds, hollow rounds, and even poisoned rounds. The Gunslingers are able to switch ammunition in the middle of a fire-fight, keeping their opponents off-guard and hard-pressed as they work up to a killing blow. Finally, many Gunslingers are equipped with short-range teleporters, allowing them to get up close to a target before pulling the trigger. A few heroes have also reported of mobile armored walkers at several Malta bases. These Titan units are powerful robot warmachines, equipped with tremendous firepower. Hercules Class Titans are armed with plasma blasts, gas swarm missiles, incendiary swarm missiles, and are physically very powerful. When injured (or for tactical advantage) two Hercules Titans can combine into a larger unit, designated Zeus Class; a Zeus Class combined plasma generator is a truly devastating weapon. The various Tactical Ops teams are organized in a cell-like structure, insulated, scattered, and autonomous. This makes it hard to find out real information about the leadership manipulating the course of Malta, because each agent knows only wisps of compartmentalized information. Origins of the Malta Group :"...After World War II ended, a lot of super-humans who'd fought for the US left the service, leaving us weakened against the paranormal assets of our new enemies in the Soviet bloc. To counter this, a CIA spook named Roger Vrabel pulled enough strings to get the Might for Right act passed, which let him draft meta-humans into his own special strike force. When the Might for Right act was overturned in '67, the Soviets proceeded to kick our asses in all the Cold War spy games and it started to look grim." :"So Vrabel, McIntosh, and a bunch of others got together at a little conference organized by Neil McIntosh on the island of Malta, and there the 17 of them formed an illegal intelligence conspiracy called the Malta Group. They acted outside of their own governments, recruiting meta-humans by any means fair or foul to fight their invisible war." :"These days, communism's gone, the cold war is over, and the Malta Group's had to change. Now they've dedicated themselves to the spread of their version of democracy and capitalism, which really is more like a dictatorship wrapped in an American flag. " Villain types Malta_OperationOfficer.jpg|These are the backbone of the military presence of the Malta Group. The Tac Ops cells are trained to operate independently and are almost never aware of each other's activity. Machine guns, grenades of varying kinds and other modern weaponary are their stock in trade. Malta_OperationEngineer.jpg|The Engineers of the Tac Ops cells are masters of technology. They maintain and repair all the equipment used by their comrades. In addition to these responsibilities the Engineers are known to drop turrets in the fields, turning every battle with their cell into a killing field. Malta_TacticalOperative.jpg|It has not yet been fully determined how the Bio Energy Feedback Inducer utilized by the Malta Sappers work, but it certainly does so efficiently it is clear this weapon was designed specifically for hunting down and neutralizing super powered beings of all sorts. Heroes in combat with them should be very wary. Malta_Gunslinger.jpg|Some of the most deadly Operatives in the Malta Group have been given the nickname Gunslingers. This name came into common usage not only because the agents use firearms, but because they also tend to have the same kind of cocky attitude and cow boy mentality that one associates with gunslingers in the old west. Malta_HerculesClassTitan.jpg|The Hercules Class is the smallest Titan unit employed by Malta. It is believed that the technology used to create them came to this covert villain group sometime during or after the fall of the Soviet Union. It has not yet been determined if the Titans are simply robots, or something more. Their offensive capabilities are many and varied. Malta ZeusClassTitan.jpg|The middle class of the Titans used by the Malta Group are even more deadly than their younger brothers. This stands to reason since they are two Hercules class units combined into a deadly enemy. They are equiped with the standard fragmentation, incendiary and gas missiles. In addition, the Zeus units combined plasma generators are extremely potent, firing multiple blast simultaneously. Malta_TacOpsCommander.jpg|The Tac Ops Commanders are the only members of their cell to have any contact with the upper echelons of the Malta Group. Secrecy and maintaining their cover identity is the primary directive for these agents. Malta KronosClassTitan.jpg|The mammoth Kronos Class Titans are the pinnacle of the Titan Project. Fortunately they are prohibitively expensive to manufacture. If the Malta Group can find a cost effective way of manufacturing these monsters, their terror will felt around the globe. Leadership Moment A shape shiftiing member of Malta. He is capable of turning into anyone or anything, adopting, presumebly adopting their abilities once he has their form. His natural form is unknown. Slinger Slinger is one of Malta's engineering geniuses, with excellent knowledge of advanced robotics and weapons. Some suspect he had a direct hand in the development of the infamous Titan robots. Gryfalcon Gyrfalcon is the Malta Group's top general and the only known member of the organization's mysterious Council of Leaders. Though Gyrfalcon has an almost legendary disdain for his operatives, when they get killed or captured, he does something about it. That, after all, is what you do. Director 11 The Directors are a mysterious group of individuals who are in charge of the Malta organization. No one knows threir true names, not even the directors themselves. Many conspiracy theorists believe that the Directors are all the heads of very important organizations. Director 11 is whispered in circles to be one of the most skilled members within Malta. No one has lived to find out who Director 11 truly is. Named members *A Titan Called Joe (Zeus Titan) *Aegis Ocher Beta (Gunslinger) *Aegis Ocher Echo (Gunslinger) *Agent Gator (Sapper) *Agent Ice Cold (Gunslinger (Lieutenant)) *Agent Tomahawk (Gunslinger) *Agent Tulip (Operation Engineer) *Agent Umber Tango (Gunslinger) *Agent Wildfire (Gunslinger) *Arc Light Black Ultra (Gunslinger) *Babel Blue 9-6 (Gunslinger) *Babel Green 2-4 (Gunslinger) *Babel Red 8-7 (Gunslinger) *Babel Red Alpha (Gunslinger) *Babel Red Beta (Gunslinger) *Belfry Black 4-5-1 (Gunslinger) *Belfry Black 4-5-4 (Gunslinger) *Belfry Blue 2-2-1 (Gunslinger) *Cannibal Gold 4-5-5 (Gunslinger) *Circuit Red Alpha (Gunslinger) *Circuit Red Omega (Gunslinger) *Death Chant Tango (Gunslinger) *Destiny Orange 5-1-3 (Tac Ops Commander) *D.R. Support Unit 41 (Zeus Titan) *D.R. Support Unit 42 (Zeus Titan)* Dreadnaught Red Kronos 02 (Archvillain rank Kronos Class Titan, World Wide Red story arc from Crimson) *Echo Red Eta (Gunslinger) *Guardian Black 3-5-7 (Gunslinger) *Guardian Blue 1-4-9 (Gunslinger) *Headhunter Red 2-4-2 (Gunslinger) *Helix Black 08-08 (Gunslinger) *Helix Black 0-9-0 (Gunslinger) *Heretic Green Epsilon (Gunslinger) *Ice Cold Panther (Gunslinger) *Jack Firenze, Director 17 (Gunslinger) *Kingdom Red 0-1-0 (Gunslinger) *Kingdom Red 1-0-1 (Gunslinger) *Kingdom Red 2-0-2 (Gunslinger) *Kitty Kat Bravo (Gunslinger) *Knight Blue 1-0 (Gunslinger) *Knight Red 0-1 (Gunslinger) *K.R. Support Unit 02 (Zeus Titan) *Kronos Class Titan *Lantern Black Ultra (Gunslinger) *Libram Green1-0-9 (Tac Ops Commander) *Nile Fire 9-7 (Gunslinger) *Ocean Orange 4-6-2 (Gunslinger) *Ocelot Alpha Male (Gunslinger) *Omnivore Red 1-1-5 (Gunslinger) *Omnivore Red 7-7-0 (Gunslinger) *Opal Blue (Gunslinger) *O.R. Support Unit 01 (Zeus Titan) *O.R. Support Unit 04 (Zeus Titan) *O.R. Support Unit 21 (Zeus Titan) *O.R. Support Unit 23 (Zeus Titan) *O.R. Support Unit 24 (Zeus Titan) *O.R. Support Unit 25 (Zeus Titan) *Paradox Black Alpha (Gunslinger) *Paradox Black Beta (Gunslinger) *Paradox Black Delta (Gunslinger) *Paradox Black Epsilon (Gunslinger) *Paradox Black Gamma (Gunslinger) *Paradox Black Omega (Gunslinger) *Paradox Dancer (Gunslinger) *Philospher Gold 1-4-1 (Tac Ops Commander) *Rain Purple 8-7-7 (Gunslinger or Tac Ops Commander) *Silhouette Azure Alpha (Gunslinger) *Silo Green 8-7-7 (Tac Ops Commander) *The Boss (Gunslinger) *Vital Gold 1-2-1 (Gunslinger) *Wesley Strauss (Gunslinger) Category:Enemies Category:Malta Lore